How tomake yourselfinvaluable

Five essential practices for strategic communicators

by Caroline Kealey

If you’re not clear on the value you bring to your organization as a communication professional, there is no hope that anyone else
will recognize it either. Consider your
value proposition carefully, and then
spend some time focusing on these
five essential practices for strategic
communicators.

1. Drive alignment.
Communicators have to be fully aligned with the
organizational or corporate objectives.

Too often, we are vulnerable to being
reactive and going off in directions
that are actually disconnected from
the organization’s mandate and target
outcomes. And that is a slippery slope
to irrelevance. You need to deliberately
align your function, your decisions,
and your investments of time, energy
and mental
space to whatever the organization has
determined to
be its top priorities and targeted results.

That’s the space that matters, and
where you need to be in order to make
a difference.

2. Adopt a strategic state of mind.

Whatever you’re doing on a day-to-day
basis needs to focus on the end state—
i.e., “What does success look like?” This
is in contrast to having tactical tunnel
vision and
focusing only
on the reality
of the daily
churn. Being
strategic, and
bringing that
value to the
table, means constantly thinking about
outcomes. This results-based mind-set is at the core of being a strategic,
valued communicator. It’s the escape
hatch from being a tactician, stuck as
a short-order cook. Consider also the
importance of strategic communication
planning as a vital core competency
for our profession: Developing tight,
insightful plans that connect business
objectives to communications leading
to measurable outcomes is critical.

Being strategic,
and bringing that
value to the table,
means constantly
thinking about
outcomes.